THE FAMILY OF an Irish resident who has been imprisoned in Iraq for the last year has said that his health is deteriorating as international efforts continue to secure his release.

Robert Pether, who lived with his family in Elphin, Co Roscommon, has been held in “dismal conditions” at a prison near Baghdad due to a contract dispute between his employer and the Iraqi government.

The Australian-born Irish resident was the head engineer on a project in Iraq for over four years, however there was a contract dispute with relation to an extension of time.

In April last year, Pether and his Egyptian colleague Khalid Radwan were invited back to Baghdad by the Central Bank to resolve the dispute between the bank and their Dubai-based employer CME Consulting, but there they were arrested.

Speaking to RTÉ’s Prime Time, Pether’s wife Desree said: “Five and a half months went past before they got to court. They saw their lawyers for the first time, two days before court, and they went to court and they were convinced that finally given the opportunity to show all of the evidence, proving they’re 100% innocent, that they would be out.”

“They were sentenced to five years and $12 million (fine) and not one shred of evidence proving they were innocent in any court setting, right at the beginning, or even after in their court case was ever accepted into evidence,” she said.

Desree Pether. RTÉ Prime Time RTÉ Prime Time

Desree said that her husband’s health is “deteriorating” in prison.

He’s dizzy all the time and he has a new mole on the same ear that he had a melanoma on before. He’s losing weight again, he’s already lost like nearly 40 kilos.

Pether’s teenage son Flynn said his father has missed milestones in his children’s lives in a year when contact has been restricted to brief phone calls from prison.

“A lot of the time he’s very upset about missing the milestones and everything. So when I had my 18th, I got a phone call with him. He was crying on the other end of the line and hearing your own father crying… it’s very demoralizing,” he said.

‘State-sponsored abduction’

There are six international lawyers working on securing Pether’s release. London-based Irish lawyer Peter Griffin described the case as “a state-sponsored abduction”.

“It was an entrapment designed to lure two individuals who did not even reside in Iraq to Iraq, and thereafter to essentially hold them hostage to some sort of criminal dispute,” he said.

Following an investigation by the Geneva-based UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the case has been referred to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture. 

Last month, the Working Group found that the two men “have been arbitrarily detained, without any legal basis.”

The Working Group also had concerns about the conduct of the trial, where it has been claimed that “during the trial, Pether’s statements were purposely mistranslated to indicate guilt.”

The Pether family said that the recent release of Irish businessman Richard O’Halloran, who returned home earlier this year after being detained in China for three years, has given them hope.

Desree is in contact with the O’Halloran family and they are supportive of her campaign.

Flynn said: “I think it’s great that we were finally able to get Richard O’Halloran home and if the Irish Government were able to do that for him, what’s to say that we can’t do that for dad?”